The
International Space Station Expedition Two Crew Interviews with
Commander Yury Usachev.

Q: Yury, tell me why you wanted to become a cosmonaut.

A. Oh, when
I was a young engineer I [was] working for Energia Space Company,
and I saw some cosmonauts working there, and, I thought this could
be good idea to try to work, to do work like them, like they did,
and, I tried to pass some exams, some medical test, and there
you go.

How
did you come to be working at Energia in the first place-because
you were interested in space flight before?

Oh, say
again, I don't understand.

Why
is that you were already working at Energia in the first place-how
did you come to be involved?

Oh. I…twenty
years ago I graduate from Moscow Aviation Institute and, I decide
to work for some space company, and, I had some agreement with
them, and, I worked for EVA group of people, and, some future
construction people. And then, I like it-that's why I try to work
more and more, and actually, I work, like, ten, oh, eight or ten
years for Energia Company.

Were
you interested…even as a child, you were interested in aviation?

Oh, no.
When I was child I want to be pilot, like, as a lot of children
want to do. And, that's why I start to work for, or study at,
Moscow Aviation Institute. But it's my work; more engineering
like than real pilot work, and, I think it's good way for me to
be a engineer. Now I think it's the best way what I can have for
this, for my life, so far.

As
you look back, who are the people who you think have been or still
are the most significant influences in your life?

Oh, I think,
our parents influence more for us. It's, of course, our relatives
and our friends and brothers, sisters…but, I think our parents
are more influence to our life choice; I don't know.

Well, you have been involved in your work with Energia, in this
international effort that we know as the International Space Station,
for a number of years now, and have flown a mission to the Mir
space station that was a part of its early effort. I would be
interested in your perspective on how the many nations and the
space agencies and the people have improved their ability to work
together.

Yes, it's
interesting. If you remember, first time we start to work for
Apollo-Soyuz Program, and, we had a lot of problem because that
was first contact between our countries. And, unfortunately, we
didn't work more for space program because we had "cold"
world war. And then Russian way was like, international space
flight with a socialistic country, and, it was, I felt it's like
a socialistic country, then we involved some European country
like France and Austria and Japanese cosmonauts, and now it's
like new, new orbit, new answer in International Space Station.
And, it's like lesson by lesson, we try to get interested in each
other better and maybe know more about each other. And I think
it help us to work better together for this International Space
Station program.

Can you give me an example of how you have seen the result is
that we work better together?

Oh…I
have some. My experience, you know, we flew with Shannon Lucid-Yuri
Onufrienko, Shannon Lucid, and I flew for 21[st] mission [to]
Mir station, and it's clear for me how we grew up, for our relationship
between country because it was difficult for me to imagine how
it will work because it was first flight for Yuri and Shannon
didn't have enough experience for long-duration flight, and it's
absolutely, or anything with opposite, like space tradition, that's
a different culture. I [was] afraid a little bit how it could
be. But, see now, we have some experience, and I think it's very
good experience and just show us if people have some symbol, some
opinion, some wish to work together they can do that. If you don't
work together, you cannot at all, but if you want it, you can
do it easier.

You
and Jim Voss and Susan Helms got a sneak peek at the International
Space Station when you were assigned to the crew of STS-101, early
in the year 2000. Tell me, what are your impressions of the station,
and tell me whether or not the experience of having been there
has helped the three of you after you've come back and continued
to train together.

Yes. I understand
people who [have] this agreement to send us up to station for
[the] STS-101 mission, and, of course, it was difficult decision
because you know, we were assigned for this mission just two,
three-and-a-half months before flight. It was difficult. It meant
that we can do that just for this short training time. But, now,
after flight, I can tell that it's very good experience and it
was a right decision to send us to space station for STS-101 mission.
And, to me, of course, because it was my [first] shuttle flight
and now, you know, we'll start for our increment mission with
a shuttle flight, and now I know more about shuttle flight and
I can imagine what I will do for this flight and what kind of
training I need for this. And, I think it's very good experience
for me and for Jim and Susan, as well, because now, to me it's
not, more experience than I already had, because the FGB and…actually
it's the same model what we had for Mir station. But for Jim and
Susan I think it's very good experience and, they work a lot for
this mission, to change batteries, some electronic equipment in
FGB, and now, I'm sure every time they will come to FGB, they
will remember this flight and emotionally, it was very good because,
you know, we did this work very good and we complete [all] of
our tasks, and psychologically it's very good because, you know,
they will comfort more of this flight, and it's very good experience
for them to work with Russian equipment. It doesn't matter, it
will be the Service Module and somewhere else; it's actually the
same what we did for STS-101 mission. That's why I think it's
very good experience for all of us to have this flight.

Well,
you will be riding back to the station on STS-102, and the day
the shuttle docks to the station one of the first orders of business
is the exchange of crewmembers; you will be the first to move
on to the station in exchange for Yuri Gidzenko. Tell me, first
of all, why that pair of you is scheduled to exchange instead
of Commander for Commander, and second, tell me what must happen
for the exchange to be completed.

My understanding
of it is, because…STS-102, they will have two or three EVAs,
that's why hatch has to be closed between station and shuttle.
And always plan was we had to change crewmember between this to
part of station and, at least in this case, we don't have enough
time for handover, and for station like this and, we had some
experience for Mir station. [It] takes a lot of time to speak
with [the] old crew. They know much better than we do, I mean,
station, and it takes a lot of time to hand over between crewmembers.
And I think for every flight we can change our old for, change
crewmember, but, for this flight, I think it's a good idea. You
know, Yuri Gidzenko, he's Soyuz pilot, and in this case, I hope
it's never happen but I assign for Soyuz pilot, as well; that's
why we will change. And, it's a good place for handover with Sergei,
like, board engineer and Shep as Commander. And, I think we will
spend like four hours each day for handover.

Talk
about that period of time. Give me a sense of what sorts of conversations
you need to have with Shep and with Sergei while he's still there,
in order to get yourself best prepared to command that station.

You know,
like we have official, for example, comm configuration or computer
configuration, but there are a lot of details nobody knows; just
crew knows - how it works, how it's supposed to be connectors,
where some can be put on or like this. And, for inventory management
system, it's very important to know exactly where equipment [is
stored] and how it works, if it works, why it doesn't work if
it doesn't work. It's…it's different to explain but there
are a lot of details that just [the] crew knows about that. And
it's not just like technician handover-it's more environment handover
as well because a lot of people on the ground communicate to [the]
crew, and I would like know every, or more of this connection,
to understand how it works because, as I said, old crew can know
better than anybody else about that.

During
the day, the time of the docked operations, there is also, for
the first time, going to be what's called a logistics module named
Leonardo that will be attached to the station's Unity module-that
is similar, I think, to a Progress ship in that it is a way to
bring new supplies to the station. Talk about…the theory
behind the use of these MPLMs and how you, as a station crewmember,
will work inside the station to move cargo back and forth.

First of
all, we have some plan for transfer from MPLM to station, and
we will follow this plan because a lot of people try to schedule
this work. If we change something, we communicate with ground,
just [to] make sure they understand why certain storage, if it's
for some reason couldn't be done. And I think it's easier to work
with MPLM than it is Progress because it's bigger and sometimes
it was very difficult to work with Progress and, because it was
difficult to open the hatch-there were a lot of cargoes and it
took a lot of time to load it, to take cargo out. I think Jim
and Susan and I have enough experience to work; it's not so complicated
to work with MPLM.

What
kinds of cargo is this module capable of bringing to the station?

Main task,
I think, main purpose for this module [is to] bring up racks for
Lab module for some future modules-its main task from my point
of view. That's why it has a big hatch and, much bigger than Progress;
maybe Progress could be inside this MPLM!

The
shuttle Discovery is scheduled to be docked to the station for
about a week during this mission, STS-102, at the conclusion of
which you will be the Commander of the station with your crewmates,
Jim Voss and Susan Helms, as Jim Wetherbee prepares to bring the
Expedition One crew back to Earth. Have you planned any special
farewell ceremonies or something to mark the change in command
from Bill Shepherd?

Oh, yes;
I think the first part will be done when Yuri will change his
place with me and then…we didn't discuss with Shep about
that. I think, they have enough time to imagine how it could be
on board station, and the closer they're [to] this flight, they
will more think about that. And, I think I will just, oh, follow
this roles because Shep is International Space Station Commander
now. You know, we have some ballots in the Node and some ship's,
like notebook where we sign some…a log…and unfortunately,
I don't know enough about this tradition because I'm not military,
Navy, but, we'll try to follow this tradition. I think it's a
good tradition, to imagine International Space Station as a big
ship, an international spaceship.

Once
the hatches between these two are closed and it comes time to
separate the two vehicles, you will be left to begin your increment.
First, talk about what it is that you and Jim and Susan will do
as Discovery undocks and flies around your station.

Oh…I
think we have to, first of all, we have to follow our procedures
and we have some activities during shuttle flight around, like
activation, guidance and navigation system and electrical power
system. And, if shuttle flight needs any communication or any
help we will try to do that. And, then, I think it could be a
most difficult part, first two or three weeks; we'll work, just
the three of us, because we have to build our environment, our
communication, our relationship between each other because it's
a little bit different- ground, communication, relationship, I
mean, among crewmembers and ground, and we will try to build our…communication…and,
maybe it will be the most difficult part of our flight.

Tell
me about how you imagine regular life on the space station will
be like. What do you envision your crewmates, you and your crewmates,
doing day-to-day, week-to-week-is there a regular routine that
develops?

Yes, maybe
it's more routine than ground people imagine, but, we have [a]
very tight schedule of our flight. Now, you know, we'll have four
shuttle, include our shuttle, up and down, and two shuttle, 6A
and 7A, in just four-and-a-half month's flight. And we have a
Russian taxi cargo and Progress and Docking Compartment at the
end of our flight, and so we have a very tight schedule. And,
I hope we won't have enough free time to think that our life's
too bad or like this-I think, it's a very good flight, [I'm] looking
forward to doing that.

Can
you give me a sense of what you would anticipate a regular day
to be like? I realize that you are by no means going to be in
a regular place, but what would a regular day on the space station
be like?

It's very
similar [to] what we have on the Earth. It's wake up, it's toilet,
teeth brush, shaving, then a short briefing with ground, just
[to] make sure with them, each other, good enough for this daily
plan, and if something changes, we would like to know about that.
And then three or four hours working for some equipment…it's
a long story, we can speak a lot about that…then, twice a
day we will have exercise on treadmill and the bicycle…we
have [a] meal three times per day, and at the end of day we will
discuss about result, this day's result and what's [planned] for
tomorrow and…maybe just after that we will have enough time
to look [out] the window or to speak among crewmembers, to spend
much time more into things than just make routine.

It
sounds as if it might even be a more relaxed pace, certainly than
a space shuttle mission, but perhaps even a bit more relaxed than
some other busy job on Earth.

Yes; it
[depends] on a lot of things. Sometimes we have free days for
different reasons. Sometimes it's a full day like twenty-six or
forty hours-I have some experience of that. When we had STS-76
mission for 21 Mir mission, we began to work so early for docking
and for transfer-it was [a] long day, much longer than usual day,
like we live two days for one day; it was a very good example.
Sometimes it happen for some Progress docking or Soyuz, change
docking port…but anyway it's good-it's exactly what we would
like to have on orbit; not just relax, [it's] real work. That's
why a lot of people want to work on orbit because it's [a] very
good place for realizing their potential effort, I don't know,
condition.

The
station itself-the International Space Station which you three
will take over from the Expedition One crew-will have much greater
capabilities than the station that they arrived at in the summer.
Can you talk about how the presence of the U.S. Lab module Destiny
is going to expand and change the command and the control capabilities
of the station, and the communication with Houston and Korolev.

Yes. I don't
want to speak about lot of technician details, but, first of all
we will have more volume, more space, for our mission, and maybe
Susan will live in the Lab because it's more place and somebody
has to control all system or environment inside Lab. And, another
point of view, after second Progress we will have a Russian camera,
a Betacam, and, you know, its crew is [now] flying, but we still
don't have enough picture, the good picture, because they don't
have a Beta camera and, I think it's not fair first crew doesn't
have good view because it's worth it to have much better picture
than we have now. And, I hope we will have a Beta camera, and
we will try to show people on the ground, as well as good, this
place is and Lab and Russian segment and FGB and Service Module,
and they will have more, you will have more information about
real station condition, space, etc.

As
I understand it, as time goes on, the capabilities will improve
so that you will have very few restrictions on your ability to
communicate with the ground just by sound as well as by picture.

Yes. But
you know sometimes it doesn't help to have more communication
with ground because you have a lot of people in the Mission Control
Center in Korolev and Houston, and everybody want to help us and
sometimes it doesn't help because they want to help a lot, and
from my experience of that, for Mir station, for example, it was
better time where we didn't have comm with ground. We have enough
experience, if we have exact plan what we have to do, it's not
necessary to have more communication; we just, if we have any
question we can ask it but for real flight, if it's clear, it's
not necessary to speak. I think we, that's what I mean-we have
to build our communication with ground, just make sure that it's
enough for them and for us and for communication.

The
U.S. Lab module, Destiny, as you said, will be there and will
add a lot of volume for you to live in, but your crew is also
going to begin scientific work in that module. Can you give me
an overview of the science that will be performed in this facility?

Just two,
oh, two-and-a-half weeks ago, we had a sim for HRF rack, Human
Research rack, activity and we tried to communicate with Alabama
and Houston and Mission Control Center. And, actually it was part
of this science task we already had for Mir program, and, some
of them it's familiar for us. I mean, it's not something that's
absolutely unusual; what we are going to do for this, like first-step
Lab, we just try to work out, like, try to receive new information
and I don't expect we will have some absolute unusual experience
for this, our flight. Most of [the] time, what we have to do is
just follow procedure and follow scheduled experiments, what our
scientists on the ground schedule for us. You know, we don't have
enough time to analyze [the] results; all we have to do [is] just
to activate some equipment and turn it off and just follow some
experiments to make sure that it works properly.

I
think, you've made reference to the fact that, in communicating
with the ground to talk about the science experiments, in large
measure there you won't talk to Houston or to Korolev, but you'll
talk to payload controllers at the Marshall Space Flight Center
in Alabama. Can you tell us about how the people there are going
to be contributing to the science operation?

Oh, unfortunately
I don't have enough experience; it was just a short time we spoke
to each other shortly during this sim.

I
mean more in a general sense and not just with the Human Research
Facility, but, how will you and your crewmates be working with
the people at the payload center in Alabama?

Yes. You
know, we have ability to work directly [with] scientists, that's
why it's very good; we won't have, like, additional part of or
amount, between crew and scientists-we can speak directly if we
have to change something or, I don't know, to check something,
we will speak directly [to] have [an] immediate answer. I mean,
it's very good. You know, sometimes it's difficult for people
which don't understand exactly what's going on for this experiments
to translate or to communicate, with crewmembers; it's [a] good
idea to speak directly for scientists. I hope we won't have any
problem with this communications.

Along
with the work, the science work, that you all will do inside Destiny,
at this point there is on the schedule the first space walk of
the mission, one that I believe is intended to take place inside
the Zvezda module to move a docking cone. Can you tell us what
is involved there, and who's going to be conducting this internal
space walk?

First of
all, why we're going to do that-you know, we have just one cone
for docking any cargo vehicle or Soyuz, and after FGB and Service
Module docking, we don't need any more of this docking cone in
this place, and, so far we want, we'll have another cargo vehicle
like Docking Compartment, we would like to prepare a place for
docking it. So that's why we have to change this cone to another
place. And, it's going to be difficult…it will be difficult
to do because it's a small place-I mean…Russian reserve docking
compartment-and all that we do is just change this cone, but two
crewmembers and the spacesuit in this small place. It's difficult,
but we had twice this, sim, in the Russian neutral buoyancy laboratory,
and our specialists decide we are ready for this space walk.

And,
to make sure I understand, this is to occur inside the spherical…

Yes.

…portion…

It is two-meter
sphere, and we have to just have place back-to-back to each other
and try to help to move this cone from one place to another one.

And,
in this case, it's you and Jim?

Yes. Now,
with this crew, it's Jim and I who'll do that.

The
two of you back-to-back in just a two-meter area? It'll be very
cramped.

Yes, it
was difficult, at least in the Russian NBL, but I'm sure for real-world
flight it's much easier to do.

Before
you, at this point, will see another shuttle crew, you're due
to receive supplies on a Progress ship, and you talked a bit about,
referred to the Progresses before. Can you give us a sense of
what it takes, throughout, for you and your crewmates to manage
a Progress: how do you get things out, how do you prepare one
to leave, how do you keep track of what's in and what's out and
what belongs in the right place?

Oh, you
know, a lot of people on the ground [have been] thinking about
that, and they already scheduled a place where cargo [is] supposed
to be and you know we have inventory management system and we
have hard copies book where we have all cargo where it's placed
and where it's supposed to be, and they scheduled day-by-day what
we have to do, beginning from hatch open and undocking Progress.
It's more mechanical work than, I don't know, mental, mentality
work; all we will have to do [is] just work with some construction
and attach some equipment and transfer it to another place and
to make sure that it's in proper place, and we have some notice
of the inventory management system make sure that people on the
ground know exactly where it is.

Is
it difficult to not have a lot of clutter involved? You've got
a lot of supplies coming out, you have supplies you want to get
rid of that are going in-does it make a mess?

Oh, sometimes
it's very difficult. For example, you know, I talk a lot about
the Mir experience because I have some experience and actually,
it will be the same equipment port we will have for International
Space Station. And sometimes before Progress docked, we had a
lot of equipment-like old equipment that doesn't work, equipment
inside station-and we try to put it together to organize it, and
just after Progress docking and we load some equipment, old, first,
what we didn't just put old equipment inside and just tried to…to
clear station from old equipment. And what's most difficult part,
it's to never have mistakes, for this changing because sometimes
we couldn't because there [is] a lot of equipment, and it's more
important to organize this, to place, like, new equipment, old
equipment, and what's scheduled for transfer from Progress or
to Progress and where…that's why we have to prepare place
before Progress docking, for every delivered equipment in station.
It's a lot of work.

The
second of the four shuttle visits that are a part of your increment
comes up a short time after that and it brings the space station's
robot arm. Before we talk about how it gets attached, talk about
the hardware itself: what is it that, tell me about this new component
of the station and how it's going to be used in the future.

First of
all, I would like to speak about people who built it and who teach
us about that; I think it's more important than just metals and
just hardware. First time we were at Canada's Montreal, Canada
Space Agency, maybe two, two-and-a-half years ago, and everybody
in facility - it's very good place, they have very good specialists.
It's young enough and they already have a lot of experience for,
not just for this hardware, for teaching-they have very good scheduling,
they have very good CBT, computer-based training, and I think
they have very good base for training. And, it's not just my opinion,
it's a…crewmembers have told me about that, they were surprised,
as good Canadian Space Agency organized our training, because
we had just three or four days for training and they did very
good. Yes, people like this cannot do bad hardware, and it's understandable
because just one part of station-Canada can do more than just
this arm, but they prepare very good, hardware and robotic workstation
inside lab…actually, we will have two…and, arm itself.
First task, for this hardware [is to] try to reduce a real EVA
for people outside, you know, because it's dangerous enough, and
it [takes] a lot of money for spacesuit resource and a lot of
people work for this task, and I'm sure it will reduce [that],
but we will see. It has to help us to work outside. Maybe not
for our mission, but for future we will have this opportunity
to move [the] arm along the form and truss and from my point of
view what's most important for arm use [is] if we had some unexpected
task or, I don't know, some extremely dangerous situation, and
we can use [the] arm and, it is good, it's universal enough for
equipment and we can do very precise work with this arm. And I
think it [will] show us good hardware for future [flights].

People
who have watched the American space shuttle program are familiar
with the Canadian-built robotic arm that flies on the shuttle;
the Canadian Space Agency has developed this arm, but it's not
the same thing. Can you talk about the improvements, the extra
capabilities, in this space station arm?

It's like
a new car/old car-it's like new generation. You know, shuttle
arm attached just one hand for the shuttle and another one can
work, but, for ISS arm it's possible to change place, and, you
see, it can go work around station, just attach one hand and [detach]
another one and change place. It's much wider ability for arm.
And, of course, it's more precise. It's not just mechanical contact
with equipment; it's power/data-how it's named-it's power/data
contact. We can send some data to the ground and receive ground
data for the shuttle and you know, for future [they] want to use
small arm-like a big arm attached to a small one-and work for
some precise task. I think arm has itself a [bright] future.

Following
the shuttle's departure on this mission, you and your crewmates
are scheduled for a lot of work checking out this new piece of
equipment and making sure that this new arm works. Can you talk
about the kinds of things that you're going to do, and also the
setup, the workstation inside, where you or Jim or Susan will
operate the arm?

Oh, actually
Susan and Jim will do that. And I have some training, some experience,
but not too much as Jim and Susan have because, you know, Susan
[worked] in real flight with shuttle arm. And I'm not going to
work just myself this arm. What I have to do, from my point of
view, is I have to organize good enough this work for my crewmembers
and what they are going to do and what we will do with [the] arm.
First of all, we have to check robotic workstation, how it works
and how its real work and how [the] arm itself will work and for
a first arm use we have to check a lot, that's why we have special
plan from Canadian Space Agency, what kind of movement we will
have, what kind of motion and what you have to do. They want to
receive as much as possible information from arm, but it won't
be real work. It's more like tester work [the] first time; it's
worth it. They want [to] make sure that [the] arm's ready for
working, for the real work in space.

At
about this same time, in this same stage of your crew, a new Soyuz
spacecraft is due to arrive at the ISS. Can you tell us about
why it is necessary that another Soyuz ship come up there, and
what is involved in docking it to the station?

As you know,
Soyuz has just two, about two-hundred days resource and for other
reason, that's why they would like to change…old Soyuz for
another one. You know, first Soyuz docked for station to bring
first crew, and May or April, I'm not sure, this two-hundred days
resource will finish; that's why ground would like [to] make sure
then we have good enough rescue vehicle for some dangerous, for
some dangerous space station just undocked and descent of…I
hope it's never happen but just in case. That's why it's not possible
to have more than two-hundred days Soyuz on orbit, and in May
we will have new one; somebody has to dock this Progress, that's
why we'll have ten or eight days docked with taxi crews…as
I say, we have to change some equipment like seat liner and make
sure that everybody during this flight, after this change, [understands]
where their place [is] supposed to be for some undocking situation.
It's small, lot of routine task what we have to do, and then we
have some time for experiments; I think they will [be] ready enough
to do these experiments. All we have to do just to help them organize
these experiments, to get power if it needs, and to prepare place
for these experiments if it needs…that's what I see.

The
next space shuttle visit during your time on the station involves
the delivery of another piece of hardware to the station-its own
airlock. Can you talk about what capabilities the addition of
this airlock will add to ISS?

First of
all, this airlock will be used for both [spacesuits], in Russian
Orlan suit and EMU, American suit. And, it's like universal docking
EVA compartment for both sides, Russian and American. And, it's
bigger than just Russian or Docking Compartment; that's why we
will have a lot of place, a lot of volume for equipment, EVA,
for instrument, tools and stuff like this. It's very interesting
to work with new equipment to arrive; we have to install some
and to make sure that it's [working] properly and to prepare for
EVA, and then I hope you'll have EVA and make sure that it's work
as it's supposed to work. It's very good. It's like, oh, I would
like to compare with like, new car-if you bought new one you would
like to test to try to understand how it's work.

The
station's new robot arm will get a workout during the space walks
that are needed to install this airlock. Can you talk about the
sequence of events, what goes on in order to install and complete
the installation, rather, of this new airlock?

First of
all we, [the] shuttle crew, has to connect this, attach this,
or move this, airlock from shuttle cargo bay to the station, just
mechanically. Then, during EVA they have to connect, shuttle people
have to connect, some connectors, like, power connectors and oxygen
connectors, then they will bring oxygen and nitrogen tank and
put it on the Airlock and then they connect to this outside, just
to prepare for next EVA for station.

After
that shuttle mission, after they head home, you will have about
a month left in your increment. During that time, you are scheduled
to see the arrival of a component that you mentioned earlier,
the Docking Compartment Module. Can you tell us about this Russian
module, what its function is, and what you and your crew are going
to be doing to facilitate, to help it dock to the station?

Yes. First
of all, as I said, we have to change this cone for docking, and
this Docking Compartment, Russian equipment, has two main tasks.
First of all, it's like [a] redundant EVA compartment, and another
task it's [a] compartment for docking. This Docking Compartment
has one more docking port, and Progress or Soyuz spacecraft can
dock to the station. We will have just one more docking port for
station; it's just more ability, more flexibility for station.

And
after it docks to that portion of the Service Module, there are
more space walks involved with setting it up, right?

Yes. And
it's exactly what we did our last session in Russia. We had four
EVAs run, both Jim and I and Susan, and I work for this task.
Some of them is just connecting some cables outside between Service
Module and Docking Compartment, and installation, like crew system,
communication system, and radio control system during docking,
and some targets and-what else?-antennas and targets…make
sure everything [is] ready for real docking next Soyuz or Progress
cargo, to Docking Compartment.

After
some weeks' worth of the science work and the variety of visits,
a fourth shuttle will arrive and it will carry the crew that will
replace the three of you. By the time it's come time for you all
to go home, in your mind what are the critical tasks that you
think need to have been done to make the station ready for the
Expedition Three crew that would let you consider that your mission
is a success?

Oh, you
know, we have a lot of changes, and nobody knows what's really
happen. But main task, I mean my crewmembers, and my task as Commander,
make sure that we have station in very good condition and everything
working properly and, it's just supposed to improve; I mean station
we have more, as you said, capability, ability, and before this
handover time and docking time we have to prepare, or try to help
organize this time for shuttle mission and for new crew arriving
to station. And, one more task for me as a Commander is make sure
that my crewmembers in good condition and that's what I'm going
to do during this whole mission, and [they're safe, they're] healthy,
and they are ready for rehabilitation to Earth.

At
the point that you and Jim and Susan are on board the station
with the delivery of the Airlock-the 7A mission that we referred
to a moment ago-you will be there for the transition of the station
from the Phase 2 into Phase 3, where it is ready to begin the
science research of the program. Talk to me, finally, then, about
the science that is going to be done on this station. Do you see,
tell me about how you see it contributing to life here on Earth
and to our preparations to do exploration in space in the future?

Oh, it's
[a] difficult question. You know, it's not possible to have something
absolutely and unusual during just one mission or just like this
immediately; it takes a lot of time to get new information, new
experience, and we have to just be patient and try to use more,
as much as possible this equipment, and try to get, as much as
possible, information from this equipment. And you know, it's
more routine than just everyday and usual, I know, even like this.
It's not just, Lab will help us to know more; it's just part of
this big program. Maybe it's more important what every crew will
bring to the Earth, what kind of experience they all will have.
Now, we heard that Shep already has a lot of experience from just
one month's flight, and after four or five months we'll have much
more experiences. It's not people experience; it's much more interesting,
more important, than just science experience. If we are going
to fly in, somewhere else, then we have longer, much longer-duration
flight. We have to…more, let's say, it's not just like medical
experiments, or some body experiments, more like psychological
experience, and the ability, a person's ability to work together
because, you know, if we won't have agreement among crewmembers
or among our countries, nothing will help us-it's not possible
to…this equipment itself doesn't help us if we cannot work
together, communicate together. So, for my point of view, it's
more important just human communication or psychological support
like this than just metal or hardware itself.